the ballots as well and right now, a stun ining admission fro the mayorover toronto. rob foshd, after a vague public apology over the weekend, he admitted to reporters today he has smoked crack-cocaine. president obama modifies a key promise he made about health care reform again. the president insisted people who don't like their health care plan could keep it. that turned out not to be the case and in remarks last night, the president tweaked the message. >> if you have or had wup of these plans before the affordable care act came into law, and you really liked that plan, what we said was you could keep it. if it hasn't changed since the laws passed. so we wrote into the affordable care act, your grandfathered in on that plan, but if the insurance company changes it, then what we're saying is

they've got to make it better. they've got to improve the quality of the plan they're selling. >> that's a somewhat different from what the president said last week. listen to this. >> for the vast majority of people who have health insurance that works, you can keep it. for the fewer than 5% of americans who buy insurance on your own, you will be getting a better deal. >> and that's obviously way different what the president kept on saying in this effort to get health care reform passed. >> if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor under the reform clauses we put forth. if you like your health insurance plan, you can keep it. if you like the plan you have, you can keep it. if you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too. we will keep this promise. to the american people. if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. period. if you like like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan.

period. >> our senior white house corresponde correspondent, the president clearly trying to clarify what he had earlier said given the new realities. >> that's right, wolf, and we've seen him now this week as well as last week, acknowledging that the reality of what we're seeing doesn't really hue to that key promise that he made as obama care was really getting out of the gate and as it was moving through the congress. i think this has surprised the white house a little bit that this has created such a stir so many people who have seen cancellation letters and i think that's because they look at a lot of the people who have cancellation letters feel like they are part of what they call the 5% of americans who have insurance on the individual market. people that white house officials will say many of them are underinsured. they don't have protections against preexisting conditions,

hospitalization for instance might not be in their insurance plan and i think there was some calculations among some policy and political folks that even if these people were to lose their insurance, they would be able to have an alternative. the idea would be that would provide better coverage, would provide a competitive price, but one of the big promise for the white house is that a lot of the people seeing the cancellations aren't able to really turn to healthcare.gov and purps insurance and a lot of people are just really upset they've seen this cancellation and they have this uncertainty at this time. >> hold on. jay carney is now answering reporter's questions. >> that have caused a lot of americans consternation. when they're dealing with website. and we're making sure that millions of americans who are looking for information about their health care options are able to get and able to register

and enroll. you know, when it comes to that provision within the law, the grandfathered in plans that existed before the affordable care act was passed, that is what the president is referring to. he was also referring more broadly to the general principle and promise of the affordable care act, which is that if you're one of the 80% of americans who is insured or covered through an employer plan or through medicare or medicaid, you don't or the veterans administration, there is no change for you except for an increase this benefits. that everyone receives as a result of the affordable care act. if you're one of the 15% of americans who are uninsured, who's only recourse for health care is the emergency room, then you have nothing but better options because you have

available to you potentially free or very affordable health coverage. free if it goes through medicaid. or affordable options that did not exist for you before. if you're one of those americans in what makes up only 5% of the population who currently receive get coverage of some kind through the individual market, and had a plan before the law passed that has not been changed by your insurance company, hasn't been canceled, downgraded by your insurance company, you can keep it. it's written into the law and was explained by secretary sebelius when the rule was published. in 2010. now, however if you are in the individual market and your insurance company changed your plan, downgraded it, that, your insurance has to meet the basic

standards set by the affordable care act and what our job is and the failure of the website to function effectively has made this job more difficult is to make sure those americans that portion of 5% of the population are getting the information they need to know that they can avail themselves, half of them, of tax credits that will make their insurance cheaper than it otherwise would be. that in all situations for them, the insurance options they have available to them is better, more quality coverage. than what they're getting now. and as the president said in boston and said again last night, there will be a portion of them, smaller portion of those individuals who play, will pay higher premiums. at least on the front end. and the president talked about that in boston. talked about it again last night. we're focused on all these aspects, getting this imp menation on track so that americans across the country are able to get the benefits that the affordable care act

promises. >> those percentages might be small, they actually represent millions and millions of people who are getting these notifications and you know, the chief of staff met with some insurance ceos today to take issue with that. so, with these notices and presumably because they're not providing enough information to customers. so, one, clearly this is in the forefront of the white house. why wouldn't the legislation again that's being proposed that would simply expand in one case, extend it through 2014. house republican proposal. that whatever your plan is, you can keep it? >> well, i haven't reviewed or seen an examination internally on any ideas the people have put out about legislation, so i don't have a response to a

specific proposed piece of legislation. i think that the broader principle is that if you're going to assert that insurance companies can continue to offer substandard plans, bad apple plans, for example, that dmot provide hospitalization or have car bouts that exempt from coverage the very chronic condition you may have, often, in a way that the purchasers of this insurance don't even know, that undermines the fundamental promise of the afford bable care act, which is that everyone in america should have access to affordable, quality health care coverage. but that's again, not in response to any specific idea that people are standing about on the hill. i think that is the explanation for the broader approach, which is that while the law was being written and the provision that the president insisted be part

of the affordable care act that allowed for the grandfathering in of existing plans on the existing market so if you have that plan and want to keep it even though it was substandard, you could. you couldn't apply that hypothetically to mans that did not exist because basically, you one undermining the central promise of the affordable care act, the sort of bottom baseline of coverage that everyone should enjoy. which means that mental health services are covered. preventive services are covereded. there are no annual or lifetime caps. there are all sorts of benefits that are basic to every plan offered under the affordable care act. you can't be charged double if you're a woman. which was something that insurance companies regularly did because they could and it's important as we have this discussion, that we remember that the status quo here, the

world back to which many critics want us to go is a world in which insurers have that power to say that you know, you're relative, who has a preexisting condition, it either has no chance of getting coverage or is going to be charged so much that he, she, can't afford it. so, the whole here is important to look at even as we talk about slices. the whole is based on a principle that there ought to be affordable, quality health care coverage available to every american. >> so, you got the gist of jay carney defending the president. that's his job. he does it every day. answering reporters questions. let's bring in ron, he's joining us right now. editorial director of the national journal. how much credibility has the president lost because what he said then isn't necessarily what he says today? >> i think the cost has been significant and look, wolf, it's in the context of everything

else that's happening with the health care law. first of all, the basic context is that we are seeing the most sustained post implementation resistance and political conflict over a major entitlement really at least since social security and arguably exceeding that, so there's a very charged atmosphere here and the administration has given the critics a lot of ammunition here. most importantly with the failure of the website on launch and now, with the president being forced to as you show ed n your sequence, really become much more precise in his promise about what is changing and what isn't changing for people in the individual market. >> you believe all these reports we've been getting over the past two days and i know you've seen them, that even at the time in 2009, 2010, there were some involved in the health care push working for the president who said you know, mr. president, maybe you should be more precise. don't say if you like your health insurance policies, you

can keep your health insurance policies period because there may be some nuances. some of these folks may not be able to keep these health insurance plans as promised, but the political guys said you can't deviate otherwise you'll undermine support for the legislation. >> i have not reported that myself, but it seems perfectly reasonable that conclusion because the law is very clear in what it does. it does grandfather in individual plans that have not been changeded, but if it has been changed, the new standards established in the law and as jay carney points out, the vast majority of americans who receive coverage do so either through employer provided care or existing government programs and are not affect edaffected, does affect that portion in the individual market. the solution to this problem is the same as it is for all the other political challenges they face, which is they have to get people signed up. their poor defense here is to

get on the exchange, if you could see what's available to you with the subsidies, you might be able to find better coverage at less cost, but as long as they are not moving people into this system, it exacerbates that political vulnerability. >> they've got to fix that website. they say for the vast majority of americans, will be fixed by the end of this month. if they don't get it fixed by then, this plan is going to be in deep, deep trouble as i'm sure you agree and everyone seems to agree even officials inside the administration. all right, ron, thanks very, very much. other news we're following including the polls. many of you casting votes today. the big base is on our radar screen right now in virginia and new jersey. two states picking governors today. the virginia race looks to be close. that could give us a sense what to expect in 2014. stay with us. we're watching the political contest today.

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nthat's why they deserve... aer anbrake dance. call to find out what a great solution this can be. get 50% off new brake pads and shoes. it's election day and an emphasis on balanced initiatives. there are also a couple of races with national implications. in new jersey, the governor, chris christie, is looking for another term. he's also looking to keep up momentum for a possible presidential run in 2016. and in virginia, it's a tight governor's race. relatively speaking. terry mcauliffe, former chairman of the democratic party is running against ken cuccinelli, a tea party backed republican who is the state's attorney general. dana bash is watching the action in virginia.

erin in the new jersey governor's race. start with virginia. both democrats and republicans closely, closely watching that governor's race and its implications for 2014, 2016. dana, virginia's a battleground state as we know, the president carried it twice in the most cent elections. what do we expect to learn from today? >> well, virginia and the governor's race four years ago, it was really a canary in the coal mine and the sweep in the house. it was one of the first places we really saw a grass roots frustration with the government and washington translate into a gop win, but now four years later, the gop candidate has been trying to recapture that as in cent weeks, the obama care law has struggled. the virginia electorate this year doesn't seem to be willing to try someone who democrats have been spending millions to paint as extreme. now, if mcauliffe goes on to win

as polls suggest, it's tight, but he is nin the lead, it will cement virginia as a true swing state. the surprise win in 2008, he repeated in 2012. but if he wins the governor's race, he will be the first virginia democratic elected virginia governor in the white house since 1965. almost half a century. >> is this a referendum in virginia, the tea party movement? >> it could be, but it's hard to really tell because of the fact that virginia is a little bit different. democrats are going to certainly if they do win, going to say that this is you know, the end of the tea party movement, but they have to be careful not to read too much into it because virginia is of course very close to washington, d.c. home to hundreds of thousands of federal workers. people who rely on federal contracts and the government shutdown really does appear to look at the polls to have hurt

the republican. but if mcauliffe win never mind the tea party would put a feather in the cap of an important player, hillary clinton. you know full well. you covered them for years. there are few people as close to the clintons as mcauliffe. hillary clinton did an event, so it could be a symbolic win for the clintons, an important ally to have in a key primary if hillary clinton runs for president. >> virginia, major battleground state. thanks very much and there's no doubt terry mcauliffe, they're all excellent, excellent, wonderful friends. that's why the clintons were campaigning for mcauliffe in recent days. the former virginia governor, not always ready to tow the party line. we're going to find out what he thinks about today's race, who he's supporting. he's going to join us live at the half hour, so stabd by for that. from virginia, up interstate 95 to new jersey where chris

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voters in new jersey are choosing a governor today. do they stay with chris christie for another four years even if he may not be around during a potential presidential run. he's certainly thinking about that. our jake tapper caught up with the governor today and asked him about his conservative credentials. >> do you think of yourself as a

conservative? do you think of yourself as moderate? >> i'm a conservative. i've governed as a conservative of this state and i think some people disagree with our state. because it's, it's generally a left of center state. but i think that the difference has been i haven't tried to hide it or mask it as something different. i just tell people this is who i am. >> jake's interview by the way, 4:00 p.m. eastern. you're going to want to see the full interview. erin is joining us from new jersey right now. his presidential aspirations, clearly playing a role in today's race. it's expected to be a blow up. at least trying to run it up to show how impressive he can win in new jersey. >> well, wolf, that's right and i would point out to you that one of barbara buono's ads, said i'm the only candidate in this race running for governor. the suggestion there is chris christie is already running for

president. he's been very overt about the fact he's open for a presidential run. he said in an earlier debate that he can walk and chew gum at the same time. that says he will serve out the third term and at the same time, do things to think about his future. just next year, chris christie will run the governor's association, a fund raising association that former governors had used as a launching pad to go around the country and raise money. what we have seen in the last couple of days that chris christie is clearly gearing up for that potential. he's been campaigning the past two days with susanna martinez and he suggested that she is another republican conservative governor in a blue state that's good at reaching across the aisle, that is you can stick to your conservative principles while reaching across the aisle and working with democrats. not om conservatives like that

of course and we'll start seeing what he's going to do to shift to the right. >> you didn't see a lot of democrats going into new jersey to campaign for the democratic challenge challenger to governor christie. i don't think the president went. he did go to virginia to campaign for terry mcauliffe. i don't think he went to new jersey, right? >> wolf, that's correct. he obviously did campaign with cory booker. he endorsed cory booker, who was running in the special election for senate, but you're absolutely right that president obama and other democrats have not spent any time with barbara buono. the party made the decision months ago that this was a race not winnable for them, so they didn't think it was worth the investment. >> just sort of gave up on that whole race in new jersey. a clear ride for chris christie. thanks very much for that. we're going to stay in close touch throughout the day and

into the evening. other news, a stunning admission from the mayor of toronto today. >> do you smoke crack-cocaine? >> yes, i have smoked crack-cocaine, but no -- have i tried it, probably in one of my drunken stupors about a year ago. i answered your question, you ask properly, i'll answer. >> wow. pretty blunt answer indeed from the mayor of toronto. he add milted to that group of reporters that he has in fact smoked crack-cocaine. he says in a drunken stupor, if you will. over the weekend, the mayor offered a public apology for what he called mistakes he made, but wasn't more specific. toronto police reportedly have a video of the mayor reportedly smoking a crack pipe, but have not released it publicly, at least not yet. voters in the key battleground state, they're picking a governor today. the race in virginia could have some far reaching inpact.

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[ male announcer ] don't wait. call today to request your free decision guide and find the aarp medicare supplement plan to go the distance with you. go long. the outcome could have implications far beyond the state. tea party backed republican ken cuccinelli is up against the former democratic national committee chairman, terry mcauliffe. polls leading into today's election showed mcauliffe with the edge. we invited doug wilder to join us from richmond. thank you for coming in. >> good to be with you. >> all right. well, you're a democrat. so, people shouldn't be surprised you've endorsed terry mcauliffe, but it took you a little while to make that decision. what finally convinced you he would be a better governor than ken cuccinelli?

>> well, i like his straightforwardness. i like the fact that he stands up. i like that he says that i'm not doing this for poll ratings or favorableties, but because i believe in it. i like his energy. i like also that he is going to be someone that units and brings people together. that's going to reach across the aisle and work with both of the parties and work with anybody for that matter and i think, wolf, at this time, particularly in america, we need government to show a responsibility to show that it can work for all people. >> we know he's very, very close to both hillary clinton and bill clinton. they were campaigning for him. he's been among their best friend forever, i must say. do you think what is this bode for 2016 assuming that hillary clinton runs for the democratic presidential nomination?

>> well, you said assuming. >> no, i know. be crazy not to know that hillary is going to run and if she runs, she's going to be the nominee and if she is the nominee in virginia, it's going to help her have a governor who is of her party and the state helping her to get elected, so none of those things are without consequences, but on the other hand, i think that there were great mistakes made in this election. particularly as it relates to cuccinelli. he did a lot on the record that bob mcdonald had set forth. nor did he distance himself significantly away from the tea party and that hurt some of the people you've had on early speak about this. the tea party is fine. it's good. it's nice to have that, but when you're identification is such that it's divide and conquer of division, ours or none, it's not going to be good and it's not

going to help in this election in virginia i don't believe. >> you've been in virginia your whole life. you've seen this state change dramatically over the years. in the years i've been living here in the washington, d.c. area, northern virginia has been booming and so many people have moved in from other parts of the country. just explain to our viewers virginia today is not what it was even ten years ago. >> absolutely, wolf. that population in northern virginia turns over at least a third or quarter every ten years or so. and so, people who are there from all over the country, in numbers of people likewise who have retired in other areas of virginia, they may live in some of the rural or some of the suburban areas, but they're not back to what we used to have. virginia's not a red or a blue state. it's a people state. people are independently thinking, independent minded and they're going to show that in

their votes because that's why i think people are smart to campaign in virginia at the national level because it's a new state. it's a new commonwealth. it's a new virginia. >> i'm sure you think that terry mccall i have will be the next governor of virginia, but how tight or not so tight do you think this race will be? >> i think if he wins by six points, he could carry in the ticket. if he wins by say five or four, he might not be able to carry the ticket. >> you're talking about the lieutenant governor, the attorney general. >> there's a possibility that all -- i don't know if you agree, governor, that all five statewide elections, seats, if you will, the three other seats would be held by democrats in virginia. >> it could very easily be that way and yet, i would think you're going to have the closest

race of all of the three, that virginia would be the race for attorney general. if mark is within, i'll put it this way. if mcauliffe does not win by five so six or seven points, he could win. i think that the lieutenant governor's race is over and was over, couldn't wait for the republican candidate for that matter, but i do think that the colt tail effects, six or more, he could carry the entire ticket in. and it would be a game anger. ken cuccinei is thht. reblican. thanks for joining us. >> thanks, always, wolf. >> my pleasure to have you on the program. up next, ballot initiatives in washington state. they're taking a closer look at food and whether consumers need to be warned if cps have en genetically modified.

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colorado for example, residents in 11 northern counties are deciding if they

want to break way and become the nation's 51st state. they'd be the smallest state, but if the vote, even if they did decide to succeed, it's unlikely they would get enough voters to support the state hood for northern colorado. that would have to be approved by the colorado legislature, so it's almost certainly not going anywhere. in washington state meanwhile, a genetically modified foods on the ballot. elizabeth, how common are these foods? what are they proposing to do in washington state? >> they are very common. i can pretty much guarantee you you and i have eaten genetically modified foods. our soy, our corn. scientists take a gene from one living thing and put it in another, so for example, take a gene from a bacteria, put it into corn, the corn can then resist the bugs. some say this is a good thing,

some say this is a bad thing. they're proposing in washington to label foods that are genetically modified right on the front so people know what they're getting. >> what do we know about the safety? >> several major scientific groups have said this is perfectly safe for people to eat, but there are some who say there are rodent studies that say it's not safe. so it kind of depends who you ask. most mainstream scientists believe it is safe. >> what's the argument against labeling? >> you may think, why not label them? some people say if you label, you're going to make the food more expensive. it's expensive to figure out if a food might have a lot of ingredients, does it need to be labeled and we would see more expensive food in our communities. >> that's an initiative on the ballot in washington state. we'll see what happens tonight.

thanks very much. rethinking nuclear power despite the fukushima meltdown, a change of heart from some environmentalists, a new documentary that examines whether what you think you know about nuclear power could be wrong. i have a 401k retirement plan. i started part-time, now i'm a manager. my employer matches my charitable giving. really. i get bonuses even working part-time. where i work, over 400 people are promoted every day. healthcare starting under $40 a month. i got education benefits. i work at walmart. i'm a pharmacist. sales associate. i manage produce. i work in logistics. there's more to walmart than you think. vo: opportunity. that's the real walmart. we still run into problems. that's why liberty mutual insurance offers accident forgiveness if you qualify, and new car replacement, standard with our auto policies. so call liberty mutual at... today.

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could long held fears about nuclear power be wrong? there's a stunning new cnn film

that unveils new thinking about nuclear power and claims it may even hold the key to climate change. look at this from pandora's promise. >> assuming that the world continues to develop and that china and india and brazil become rich countries over the next half century or century, how much energy is the world going to use? when you start running those numbers, it's a sobering exercise. and you may not be able to get that number exactly right, but you realize we're going to basically double the amount of energy we consume by 2050. probably going to quadruple it by the end of the century. meanwhile, if you want to stabilize emissions at some reasonable level, almost all of that energy has to be clean energy. you've got to not only you know, create a clean energy infrastructure that will replace

the fossil fuel infrastructure we have, but we have to create yet another one or maybe two of them between now and 2050 or 2100 to stabilize the climate and that is just nothing that anybody has really been talking about for the last 20 years. >> all right, let's get right to the producer. he's joining us from new york. also joining us, our co-host, van jones. an environmental advocate as a lot of our viewers know. the film's point of view is from an environmentalist who defected from a bunch of -- who defected, now support using nuclear power, so here's the question. what changed their minds? >> well, change my mind as well. i've been an environmentalist my whole life, but it's 25 years of ethic failure on the part of the environmental movement to do

anything to combat climate change and i think it's the old definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. i think frankly, the environmental movement is guilty of that, so it's incumbent on us to put everything on the table. all clean energy sources and see what works and nuclear power produces predinlgous amounts of nuclear energy with no pollution, so co 2. the more we looked at it, the more we realized almost everything we knew about it was wrong. >> what about that, ben? >> i think it's a fascinating film. what's weird is that the environmental movement is somehow being held up as the obstacle to nuclear power going forward. it's not don't blame us. people don't want the stuff in their backyard. i don't think anybody in our viewership would say, hey, please put a nuclear power plant in my backyard.

please dump the waste in my backyard. they're looking at japan where they just had a massive failure. part of the problem is that nuclear power is incredibly expensive. especially when you have to deal with all the safety issues. you could make it less expensive. to have a carbon tax to get it cost competitive. if we're going to do it in a market based way, you have to have a carbon tax. if you're going to attack somebody, don't attack the environmentalists, who are trying to get the costs right to make clean energy go forward. to me, that's the weird thing about the film. >> i'm not attacking environmentalists. i am an environmentalist and everybody in my film is an environment environmentalist. just a couple of days ago, four of the world's leading climate scientists wrote a letter to the leadership of the environmental movement pleading with them to

support the developmentment of advanced nuclear technology to combat climate change and that has been met with dismissal from the leadership and i think it's, they've doubled down on this epic i think it shows the leadership of the environmental movement has passed its expiration date. people need to take control of this movement and assert themselves so it operates in the interest of their interesting and not the interests of the cold war generation. >> well, listening i'm all for new thinking. i think young people are all for new thinking. here's the thing. the letter, nobody can argue with that letter. the letter says we should look into whether or not there can be this cleaner, more advanced -- listen, i'll tell you right now, i'll go on record. if this magical solution that's being described now where there's no risk to anybody, where it's cheap, where it's clean, where there's no problem with waste, no problem with nuclear proliferation for weapons can happen, i'm for it.

and when puff the magic dragon shows is up with that solution, great. but we have to deal right now with the opposition that's coming to the nuclear power we've got right now. and that's really what people are concerned about. if you've got something besides a powerpoint presentation that would work in the real world, i think people would love to hear about it. the problem is that right now the nuclear power we've got is very scary for people. i don't think you should be mad at people who are afraid of the downsides. >> i'm not mad at anyone. nobody in my film is advocating building more nuclear power plants like we had in the 1970s. i urge people to watch the film. you'll see we actually have developed these advanced reactors that consume their own waste where the very physics of them prevent them from suffering a kind of meltdown like we had at fukushima and chernobyl and three-mile island. that would be impossible. there's all kinds of exciting things that are happening in reactor technology that people just don't know about. >> well, let me interrupt and

ask robert the question van raised earlier. a lot of people are reluctant to see a nuclear power plant built in their own backyard. how do you get around that? >> people are reluctant to have anything in their backyard. whenever wind turbines go up on mountain ridges, they're against that. they've been protesting against solar rays in the california desert. but we all want our lights to go on. personally, i would much rather live next to a nuclear plant than a coal plant any day. for instance, if you're scared of radiation, a coal plant puts out 100 times more radiation in the atmosphere every day than a nuclear plant. who knows that? it also causes asthma and fossil fuels kill 3 million people every year. >> you're singing my song now. i fought against coal plants the whole time. but i think it's important for the audience to understand that the cost of solar would be a part of the solution has fallen by 99% since the '70s. the cost of nuclear keeps going

up, and it doesn't yet seem to be much safer. i think the film is fascinating. everyone should watch it. it's a very important conversation. just sometimes gets posed up as the old environmentalists attacking somebody. i think the jury is still out on this whole question. >> van jones, at least both of you agree everyone should watch the film thursday night right here on cnn. van jones, robert stone. important subject. don't miss cnn films "pandora's promise" thursday night, 9:00 p.m. eastern and pacific. we'll be right back. ng rod cast, marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. [ m'm... ] great taste. [ tapping ] sounds good. campbell's healthy request. m'm! m'm! good.® campbell's healthy request. i started part-time, now i'm a manager.n. my employer matches my charitable giving. really. i get bonuses even working part-time. where i work, over 400 people are promoted every day.

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meets a bronze star recipient who was barely able to walk or speak after a combat injury but is now reaching new heights as a climber. >> this is a legendary, historic climbing area. the reason we're all here is because a part of us likes risk. when you go climbing, it takes you out of what would be your conventional element and forces you to come to terms with fear. >> it's kind of like just being in the military in you always got to be ready. >> nick first came into our program about a year ago. >> you mind if i have this piece right here? >> what paradox does is they take us vets and they pair us with just regular civilian disabled individuals. they've been doing for years what i've been used to for the first two years or three years since i've been back from afghanistan. climbing is just my way of

dealing with transition. dealing with life and death, risk, kind of the closest thing i have to being in the military now. >> i was fortunate enough to earn a bronze star of saving the life of a french soldier. unfortunately, i was injured as well. i suffered a traumatic brain injury. i came home in 2008, couldn't spell my own name, couldn't walk without a cane, and could barely speak. >> you come home, and everybody thanks you for your service, but they really don't understand what you went through. it's hard to convey that. this gets the heart pumping. it's good practice for those vertical walls that come in life. when you're on a rock wall and come up to a problem, you just don't know if you can get through it. you're wetting. your heart's beating. you just want to give up. then when you keep trying and you end up getting to the top, it's the best feeling in the

world. this one gets hard at the top. feels good. feels good. it lets you know you can feel again, that you're not numb. boom. give it up, brother. there's something inside you that's still alive. >> amazing story indeed. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." later in the evening, updates on the polls as they close, the results come in. meantime, "newsroom" continues right now with brooke baldwin. >> he is known for speaking his mind. moments ago on this election day, chris christie doesn't hold back in an interview with cnn, and you're about to hear it. i'm brooke baldwin. the news is now. did the childhood of a football player contribute to his alleged harassment of a teammate? a family vanishes without a trace, left behind their smoldering suv. plus, are peo